Getting There

It only took one drill bit and an afternoon to get the other door off.



We drilled off all of the door screws on the passenger side while Ambre drove the drivers side



And then FINALLY the thing is off.




Now it's time to work on the front bumper.



It's some backbreaking work pulling a bumper off



There must be an easier way.





Almost done



Just give it a pull



And there it is





Meanwhile, up under the dash....






It's hard work trying to find work for the kids to do while I'm trying to find work for me to do. I feel like I am making it up as I go along.

I had to lower the steering wheel to get the speedometer out of the dash. Here is what a speedometer looks like, as seen from the back....



And here is me tightening the steering wheel back up so it doesn't come down crashing the next time Ambre goes out for a drive....




And Here is the back end of the fuel guage




And that's all there is to it.



Here it is so far...




Pretty good day's work. The drilling took a little while.
What's left? The brake lines. The rear bumper. The light harnesses. The positive wire to the battery. I guess that's about it. But we'll see.

Woo Hoo. It's my lucky day.

I found a total of $0.96 in the car. It must be my lucky day!

Some loose ends

We got a few more things done and called it a day.
The dashboard is awfully sticky, and the glove box is really in bad shape.


From the outside




From the inside



There are quite a few parts that need to be replaced here.




Kenny got the engine cover off of the back, and I unhooked the licence plate lights.
There is a rubber part that goes between the lightbulb cover and the rest of the car that looks pretty important. It must be to keep out the water.

Got busy again today

We went up to Sears and picked up a couple of large screwdrivers to try to get the passenger side door off. The screws on there are really stuck.
Ambre was really impressed with Sears. It was almost a shame to drag her out of there.
Anyhow, we got busy working on the car. First I let the kids play like they were driving for a half hour or so while I got everything out and set up.
Then we started in on the interior.

The back seat was already loose...



The polyfill was a pleasant surprise.
After that I started to work on that door. It turned out to be tougher than craftsman...



It sheared the screwdriver right in half. I never saw that before. I wonder if they still have the lifetime warrenty.


And then the sun came out in earnest. It was time to peel 'em off. Shelley always makes a big deal when the shirts come off...



And then some more driving. Here is Ambre doing about 100 mph....



There are a lot of G's on the turns here in the driveway.
When she got on the straightaway, there was no stopping her....



But then it was time to go back to work.
Kenny got to work pulling seats...



And Ambre made sure the camera was still working...



Here is the interior without the front seats....



And here is how the back seat looks....



It turns out the back seat folds down for some extra storage...



Pulling the glass now. The side windows come off easily enough....



Shelley took a whole series of photos of the front and back glass coming off. Here they are....

















And now here is where the trunk/engine cover is coming off...



And this one is to remember where the licence plate lightbulb wires run...



And then came the pizza.
That was a pretty productive morning.
It looks like this afternoon will be a hot one. Hope it goes ok...........

Plan of attack

Before I start with the wire harnesses under the hood, I want to get the dash out. Looks like it would be easier that way. But before I do that, I want to take out some glass. Seems to me that taking out the dash would be a lot easier without the windshield in there.
I also need to get a couple of new screwdrivers.
Ambre is already dressed and ready to go out.

After the rain.

It quit raining last night and I was able to go back out for a little while longer.
I was able to unhook the springs from the hood brackets. I also took off the windshield wiper blades and the antenna. Oh, and one door.
Here are the pics...



One door. I did manage to break a screwdriver pulling this door. The screw was so tight, the screwdriver started free-spinning inside of the handle before the screw would break.



My first wasp nest. Nobody living there though. It is inside the driver side door frame.



And here is what it looks like now.


Look at the rust hole where the antenna was...



And I like the way the wipers come off. Just one bolt and slide it. Pretty easy..

And So It Begins

I called the tax assessor today to see about getting the title transferred over to my name. What I didn't want was to have to buy insurance. It's kind of a racket here in Texas. You need to have proof of insurance to get your driver's licence, transfer a car title, or to drive. It would have been a lot of hassle to have to go on my computer and type up a fake insurance card.
Ok, well long story short, you don't need insurance to transfer the title. Only to get tags.
So if you surrender the plates, you can transfer the title without it. So that was good.
Anyhow, I went in and got T,T, but not L. ($39.25)
Then I stopped in at the auto-part store and picked up some Go-Jo and a car cover. ($25.98)

So now the work begins....

First I unhooked the battery. You know, safety.
That wasn't too hard.
Hmmm....now what?
I guess I'll take something off of there. Start at the front, I guess.



Ok, slide out the spare tire. Pull off the hood. Or is it the trunk. Or being a European car, it could be a boot.

Not too bad. My assistant started removing the gasket that goes around the hood.



I am informed that this project is to be completed by the time she turns 18. So only 15 years to go. That's not very much time.

I really want to get the gas tank out of here for safety reasons. I guess with no battery and no gas tank the chances of a major accident are a lot less.
It looks like the gas tank is only held in place by two little bolts. One on the upper left and the other on the lower right. (It turns out that's exactly how it is.)




I'm big on safety. Disregard the lit cigarette by the gas tank.
There are two big lines there by my hand that run from the gas cap to the tank. I'll have to try to remember where they go.





Ok, the gas tank is out. The line in the picture that runs along the top, driver's side goes to the top of the gas tank. There is a smaller one below.



Here is the bottom hose that goes to the bottom of the fuel tank.

Warning: when you pull the gas tank off, the gas all comes out. I grabbed a five gallon bucket out the the garage/woodshop and filled it about three quarters full of gas. It was full of sawdust to start with, so that was handy for putting down to sop up all the the gas in the driveway.
Now I have about three gallons of gas in a bucket. What to do with it?
I wouldn't want it said that I would illegally dump any petrolium products, so I will have to wait until night when there are no witnesses.
Of course, in the hot Texas sun it's not likely to be there at the end of the day. It is evaporating at a remarkable rate.
By tonight it will likely only have thirty-four years worth of sludge in the bottom.



Here I am sopping up some extra gas from where the two large hoses connected to the tank.

Now the car looks dramatically different.
I feel pretty good. I think it's the gas fumes.

Ok, now some breakable stuff. How about the headlights....



I took out the headlight and the mounting bracket. Also the little headlight gasket.
There's a little spring on the back of the headlight to hold tension in order to adjust the beam.

I also got the front turn signals off, but left the gasket for now, because there's a mounting bracket that connects from the inside of the wheelwell. There's too much gas down there today. I'll come back to that.

How about some loose ends.

Here is the squirt-squirt....



There is one line that connect from the top of the canister apparently to the spare tire, to pressurize it. The bottom one goes up under the dash, to go to the squirter.

Here's something I've never seen before...no idea what it is...



I unclamped it to look at it. It looks like some sort of a fume depressurizer of some sort. There is a clamp that hooks it on and a black cover that goes over it. It's hooked to like three different fuel lines. I can't tell offhand if it hold fuel or fumes. If it holds fuel, it must be a reserve tank. If it hold fumes, well, who knows.

After I unclamped that, but before I got a chance to figure it out, it started to sprinkle. So I put on the car cover and that's a day's work.
All told, about three hours, not including when the cable guys came to fix the cable.

Oh, and while I was doing all of this, Ambre and Kenny took off the side mirrors.

Total investment so far $1266.85